January 29, 2020 12:00pm by David Farrar

Meet an idiot Minister

New Zealand has come out on top in the new Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.
The index ranks 180 countries and territories out of 100 and ranks based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be by experts and business executives.
New Zealand scored 87 points, tying with Denmark. Finland closely followed the lead coming in third place with a score of 86.

This is of course good news. But an idiot Minister had to try and score points by saying:

Justice Minister Andrew Little was also pleased with New Zealand’s result.
“New Zealanders can be proud that our reputation as one of the least corrupt countries in the world has been restored,” said Little.

Restored? Restored?

So presumably in 2017, NZ was ranked terribly, and 2019 is a huge improvement. Let’s check.

In 2017, NZ was also 1st in the world. Not 1st= but 1st. So Little idiots desire to try and smear National just makes him look like a petulant fool.

And if one was to be picky, the absolute score in 2017 was 89, two higher than the 87 in 2019.